M.S. Thirumalai, Ph.D. “Lord Macaulay: The Man Who Started It All ...

among these stand out as his outstanding contributions that influenced the course of ideas and
life in the Indian subcontinent. These were: his minute on the education that had a direct impact
on the content and methodology of what was best to be taught in Indian educational institutions
along with the medium through which these should be taught. The second relates to his
monumental work for the development of the Indian Penal Code. My focus in this article on
Macaulay's Minute on Education. So, I do not propose to deal with Macaulay's contribution in
the development of the Indian Penal Code. However, to give a sense of his contribution, let me
simply quote two short passages here.
Mallikarjun writes in a recent pre-publication article that discusses and documents the language
rights in South Asia and Singapore: "Written Law or codification of laws as a body of literature
that was intended to be adhered to and interpreted in judicial proceedings was an innovation, in
spite of the widespread knowledge of Manu's Dharma Shastra, and Islamic Shariat. It was a
contribution of the British rule, and it had had its own impact. It was also intended for the
convenience of the western model of governance. Lord Macaulay (1800-1859), the architect of
the Indian Penal Code, wrote that the penal code "should be framed on two great principles, -- the
principle of suppressing crime with the smallest possible amount of suffering, and the principle
of ascertaining truth at the smallest possible cost of time and money" (Trevelyan 1978 (1876):
382). Macaulay's successor Fitzjames Stephen wrote that the framing of a code was a "great
revolution in the state of society of a whole continent" for the "regular administration of a
rational body of criminal law" (Trevelyan 1978 (1876): 385)" (Mallikarjun, work in progress).
When I read Lord Macaulay's letters and speeches, I find that he was happy and justifiably proud
about his achievement in framing the Indian Penal Code. Trevelyan (1876: 385) remarks, "If it be
asked whether or not the Penal Code fulfils the ends for which it was framed, the answer may
safely be left to the gratitude of Indian civilians, the younger of whom carry it about in their
saddle-bags, the older in their heads."
14. INDIA IN 1830s: THE MINUTE IN PREPARATION
Macaulay's biographer supplies an excellent description of the situation prevailing in India in the
field of education when Macaulay arrived:
. . . that moment was the very turning-point of her (India's) progress. All educational
action had been at a stand for some time back, on account of an irreconcilable difference
of opinion in the Committee of Public Instruction; which was divided, five against five,
on either side of a controversy,--vital, inevitable, admitting of neither postponement nor
compromise, and conducted by both parties with a pertinacity and a warmth that was
nothing honourable to those concerned. Half of the members were for maintaining and
extending the old scheme of encouraging Oriental learning by stipends paid to students in
Sanscrit, Persian, and Arabic; and by liberal grants for the publication of works in those
languages. The other half were in favour of teaching the elements of knowledge in the
vernacular tongues, and the higher branches in English. On his arrival, Macaulay was
appointed President of the Committee; but he declined to take any active part in its
proceedings until the Government had finally renounced on the question at issue. Later in